Nebraska meeting builds May Day Brigade to Cuba

Militant/Reilly Stoddard

LINCOLN, Neb. — About 30 people attended an April 15 send-off here for participants in the 12th May Day International Brigade to Cuba April 23-May 8. The event took place at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso.

Phillip Brown, right, a student at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, and Lincoln resident Wyatt Nelson, a lawn maintenance and construction worker, spoke to the gathering. Both will be making their first trip to Cuba. They spoke on the social advances of the Cuban Revolution that have provided working people with free health care and schooling. When they return they plan to speak to university students and working people about their experiences, why the 55-year U.S. economic embargo of Cuba must end and why the Cuban territory at Guantánamo held illegally by Washington must be returned to Cuba.

Over 55 people from a half dozen cities are participating — the first ever U.S. delegation in this long-standing international brigade. They will join a couple hundred people from around the world, working in the fields on farms alongside Cubans, visiting historical sites, meeting with youth and workers involved in the country’s mass organizations, and marching in the International Workers Day Parade in Havana.

Other fund events to help get the delegation to Cuba have taken place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

— CHRIS STEFFEN